Business | Oil & Gas

Brent crude jumps, premium over US crude widens

US crude oil stock build threat spurs early spread trading

Reuters

Published: 14:04 February 2, 2013

New York: Brent crude rose to a four-month peak on Friday, with traders citing optimism about the global economic recovery, while Brent’s premium over US oil futures widened nearly $1 a barrel in heavy spread trading.

Brent’s premium to West Texas Intermediate rose on expectations of swelling inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma, the delivery point for US oil futures.

The spread had narrowed with the start up of the expanded Cushing-to-Texas Seaway pipeline, which had been expected to draw down Midwest inventories bulging from rising North American production.

But traders said stocks at Cushing could keep building because the pipeline may not be able to run at full capacity of 400,000 barrels per day until the second half of the year. This should keep pressure on US crude prices.

“The realization that the Seaway pipeline reversal is an answer to almost none of the crude oil backlog issues in the Midcontinent is weighing on WTI prices outright and especially in relation to Brent crude oil prices,” said John Kilduff, partner at Again Capital LLC in New York.

“It’s as if they built a pipeline to nowhere. There was a bout of irrational pipeline exuberance.”

Some market players said Friday’s spread move may have been exacerbated by a hedge fund adjusting a major position to take this into account.

Brent rose for the third straight week and posted its biggest weekly gain in two months. US crude rose for an eighth straight week, matching a similar winning streak in July-August 2004.

Brent futures for March rose to a high of $117.07 a barrel, its highest since September. Front-month Brent settled up $1.21 to $116.76 a barrel. For the week, Brent futures gained $3.48, or 3 per cent.

Trading volumes were heavy, with US crude volumes nearly 60 per cent over the 30-day moving average, while Brent volumes were more than 40 per cent over that average.

During the US trading day the discount of the front-month US contract to Brent crude futures widened out to over $19 a barrel, the highest level since before the Seaway line reopened with expanded throughput capacity earlier this month. The spread between WTI and Brent settled at $18.99 a barrel, compared with $18.06 on Thursday.

BULLISH DATA

Positive US employment numbers boosted crude prices in early US trading, easing worries after separate data this week showed the world’s top economy contracted in the fourth quarter.

US employers added 157,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the Labour Department said. The US unemployment rate edged up 0.1 percentage point to 7.9 per cent and revisions showed employment gains in the prior two months were bigger than initially reported.

Global manufacturing activity also rebounded in January, its biggest monthly rise since August 2009 according to a business survey.

US stocks climbed to a five-year high. The Dow Jones industrial average hit 14,000 for the first time since mid-October 2007 and the S&P hit its highest point since December 2007.

Meanwhile, a pair of surveys on China’s factory output offered diverging views on the pace of the recovery of the world’s second largest oil consumer.

The official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) missed market expectations, while a private PMI survey released by HSBC showed growth among manufacturers quickening to a two-year high.

Worries about Brent supply due to conflict in the Middle East also pushed its price up. A suicide bomber killed a Turkish security guard at the US embassy in Ankara on Friday.

The attack further increased tensions in the region after Israel bombed targets in Syria earlier in the week.